


Robin's Gambit

by peregrinning



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: F/M, Mild Sexual Content, Romance, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-13 21:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7986331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peregrinning/pseuds/peregrinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Cormoran and Robin attend a party at a financial institution they are investigating and are cornered in an office where they have no right to be, Robin's quick thinking might be their only chance to make it out with their discoveries. </p>
<p>Story two of two with a similar premise, as I had two ideas that I wanted to explore; please forgive the similarities and try to enjoy this story too! This story focuses more on the relationship between Cormoran and Robin rather than on any details of their case. </p>
<p>Third person, Robin's POV</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Robin thought this might have been Strike and Ellacott’s most difficult case yet. The opulent world of finance, coupled with seedy black-market deals, lies, threats and mysterious disappearances or accidents. 

She loved it. She loved all the work involved, all the hours spent looking over documents, tailing persons of interest, staking out locations both glamorous and rough. Though she knew she’d been putting in really long hours, it hardly felt like work. Not to mention, it was far more enjoyable to spend those hours trying to right some wrongs in Cormoran’s surly yet excellent company, rather than at home in her small flat, where memories of Matthew might come to crowd around her and refuse to give her a moments peace. 

 

And now they had this wonderful opportunity to attend a party at Higgins-Busch. She was hoping that they’d be able to observe how different suspects interacted, maybe overhear some interesting conversations, take some pictures, and perhaps (if they were really lucky) manage to sneak off to some offices and gather incriminating paperwork. 

Robin had been standing in front of her closet for a while. She had a few dresses that would be suitable, attractive and formal but not too memorable. Yet she was drawn inexorably to the green silk dress that Cormoran had once given her. Truthfully, she had never worn it out; Matthew had hated it, and the only other time she’d worn it had been while having a girl’s night at home with her new flatmate Nicole. That had been quite fun, but now was the perfect opportunity to wear it somewhere fancy. 

Would it make her too memorable? But then, she supposed there would be plenty of women at this event in designer dresses even more glamorous than this one. Something about the dress felt right. Cormoran had given it as a thank-you for their first successful case together; maybe it would bring some luck to this one. 

There was also her strange desire to see Cormoran’s face if she showed up in the dress. She wondered if she might see something break through his stoic exterior, even just for a moment. Would she see surprise, pleasure, and maybe even some attraction? She was trying not to examine her wish to see _that_ on his face too closely. Maybe she just needed to get out more. But it would be nice to have a man look at her with some kind of feeling again. 

In the end she decided to put it on. _Just for luck_ , she told herself. 

 

When they walked into the party together, she realised that all the couples were entering arm-in-arm. Cormoran, always on the ball, quickly offered her his. She could feel the warmth of his arm bleeding through his suit jacket into her skin. She had to admit, Cormoran cleaned up nicely. This suit had to be his best one; it was actually wide enough across the shoulders, and was slimming. He still looked large and intimidating, but in less of a rogue-boxer kind of way and more of a distinguished veteran kind of way. Which he was. He just didn’t usually look it. It was actually a bit of a thrill to walk in on his arm; she didn’t miss the admiring glances their way from men and women alike. 

It was a couple of hours into the party that their best opportunity came up. Two men had unlocked the door to the corridor with most of the offices and evidently were coming back soon enough not to warrant locking it behind them; she’d watched. Cormoran caused a distraction by pushing a waiter with a tray of drinks into a group of finely-dressed ladies (at least it was champagne, their dresses shouldn’t stain); she’d quickly gone through the door, then Cormoran had followed. 

 

They were in one of the offices a while later, just reading over some _very_ interesting papers, when the light came on in the hallway and voices echoed down it. A torch beam shone down past the frosted glass door. 

“Shit”, Cormoran whispered, and they both froze. But the voices were coming nearer and they could distinguish words. 

“Stupid idiots that left the door unlocked, anybody could get down here. We’ll have to check all the offices. The IT systems are so expensive”. 

She and Cormoran looked at each other in panic. He started shovelling the papers away in a drawer. What could they do? There was nowhere to hide and the men would definitely open the door shortly. 

_Think, Robin,_ she told herself fiercely, _what kind of excuse could we have for being in a dark office?!_

As quickly as that, an idea came to her. It was crazy, Cormoran might kill her afterwards, but it was the only thing she could think of, and he didn’t seem to be coming up with any grand ideas either. 

Shoving the remaining papers onto the ground as quickly as she could, she planted her behind on the desk, grabbed Cormoran’s tie, pulled him towards her, wrapped her legs around him and started kissing him for all she was worth. 

For just a moment he froze, but then quickly caught onto the plan and started kissing her back. And _god_ , she was into it. _So into it_. His mouth was warm and tasted of champagne and his huge hands were on her waist, his enormous weight pressing her into the desk. She hoped suddenly that the men would open the door soon because she knew she would have to keep kissing Cormoran until they did and soon she would forget why she was kissing him in the first place. And that was definitely not supposed to happen. She couldn’t be kissing her boss just because she’d suddenly realised how very sexy he was. 

 

The door opened; the torch shone at them, one of the men yelled “hey!” and she and Cormoran broke apart. She looked up at him; his cheeks and mouth looked flushed. 

“For fuck’s sake, what are you two doing back here?” one of the security guys asked furiously. The other one laughed. “Looks pretty obvious to me, Tim”. 

“I’m so sorry,” Robin said in her best breathless and girlish voice, “we were just having so much fun at the party and then we knew these offices would be quiet and, being around so much wealth and power is just such a turn-on, you know?”. She added a giggle for good measure. 

Tim looked quite disgusted, the other one, like his night had just been made. 

“You’ve made a huge mess”, said Tim. “I think we’ll need to escort you out. And take down some details”.

“Come on, mate”, Cormoran said, “We were just fooling around. Having some fun. Can’t you let us off with a warning? Look at my girl, she looks stunning. How could I resist?”. 

“She does look great”, said the younger and more cheerful man. “Come on, Tim. Let’s just see them out of here. We don’t get paid enough to ruin some drunk, horny peoples’ nights. As to the mess, we can just tell the cleaners coming after the party to come back here too. With that corridor unlocked I bet these two weren't the only lovebirds down this way tonight”. 

Robin held her breath, desperately praying their gambit would pay off. 

Eventually Tim reluctantly agreed and they were escorted back to the party and told by the laughing young man to “save it till you get home”. 

_Thank god._

 

In the cab on the way home there was a momentary awkward silence. Robin fervently tried to think of something to say but was coming up blank. Luckily Cormoran spoke up. 

“That was some quick thinking back there, Robin. I thought we were in some deep shit for a moment”. 

As always, his praise made her feel warm and glowing inside. 

“Thank god for that young guy”, she said. “If we didn’t have Mr Romantic at Heart there to believe us, I’m not sure it would have worked”.

“Pity we didn’t get to take any copies of the papers. But did you see them?!”. 

“Yeah. This is major. At least we got away from there!”. 

Then, looking at each other, the tension broke and they both started laughing. Robin was still laughing when she realised that Cormoran had stopped. She turned to look at him; he was watching her with a very intent, almost pained expression. 

“I didn’t want to stop kissing you” he said in a very hoarse voice. Her breath caught in her throat. What should she say to that? Should she just ignore it, talk about the case, write it up to nerves and adrenaline and maybe just some kind of weird hold-over from kissing her? 

But no. Not when he looking at her like that. Not if she remembered how much she had enjoyed being kissed by him. Not if she was honest about why she’d worn her green silk dress tonight. 

She watched as her hand reached up, almost of its own accord, to take hold of his tie for the second time that night. 

“I didn’t want you to stop either” she said, and then his own big warm hand came up to cover hers, and then he was kissing her. 

As the taxi spend through the dark, quiet night, the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own blood rushing in her ears, and the only thing she could think of was how right it felt, and how long she had, on long cold nights, wanted this. 

 

When they reached the office, where he was meant to be dropped off before the taxi carried on to her place, she made a swift decision, hoping she wasn't being too bold. 

“Just the one stop, actually, thanks”, her words sounding much more confident than she felt. She paid the driver and then turned to Cormoran who was looking at her with what could only be described as amazement. 

They went inside and paused for a moment at the landing where the office was. 

“Er, would you like to go into the office to work or would you like to…come upstairs?” he asked. 

She couldn’t help but smile. “Of course I’d like to come upstairs!”.

 

Inside his small but well-maintained flat, Cormoran started to kiss her again with even more fervour. His bulk pushed her backwards towards the bed, and she felt not the slightest bit of fear or trepidation. As he slowly undid the dress and the green silk slithered to the floor, she was trembling with anticipation. Cormoran looked at her with the softest expression she had ever seen on that heavy-browed, crooked-nosed face. “It’s ok, Robin” he said. 

“I know”, she said. 

When it came time to take his prosthesis off, Robin kissed his shoulders all over while he bent to undo the straps. When he was done and moved his legs up onto the bed, his face was so open and honest that she lent over him, red-gold hair falling around them both, and kissed him as gently and sweetly as she could manage. He held her hips when she lowered herself onto him, strong fingers holding her tightly but not forcefully. She felt liberated, holding this incredibly powerful man under her and inside her and having him look at her like she was the sun and stars. 

She fell asleep that night tucked under his big, hairy arm, knowing that in the morning they’d be a whole lot of things to take care of, both to do with the case and to do with this new thing between the two of them; and also knowing that everything would work just fine. 

 

 

 

 


	2. Morning after

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As requested, a short piece set the following morning.

When Robin woke up the next morning, the flat was warm and sunny. Cormoran was still snoring softly and she wriggled her way up the pillows a little so that she could look down on his face. He looked, she reflected, no different to how he always had. His face was still heavy-browed, tending towards surliness; his hair was still dense and curly, impossible to put your fingers through. It had been the same last night, wrapped around each other; he still had a bit of a belly, still had thick hair all over his chest and arms, and though strong, his muscles weren’t lean like Matthew’s had been. Yet, she thought, none of that seemed to detract anymore from how attractive she found him. It was, she supposed, because she had fallen first for his personality and for the rapport that they shared, before coming to appreciate the attraction of his broad shoulders, large gentle hands, and deep voice.

Obviously having been roused by her movements, Cormoran opened his eyes. He looked momentarily confused before focusing on her face and smiling.

“I thought I was dreaming for a moment”, he said. “Morning light suits you”.

She flushed lightly, pleased beyond words that he seemed happy to see her and not anxious or regretful.

“Morning”, she said.

“Seems pretty late”, he remarked, “I guess we slept in. We went to sleep pretty late”.

“We were at the party for a long time. And then…” she laughed, “well, I guess it was pretty late”.

He sat up in the bed and pulled her head onto his shoulder.

“I’d really like to just stay here, Robin. Just relaxing with you. But I guess we’d better get up”.

“Cormoran, we weren’t able to take away any evidence last night. What are we meant to do?”.

He frowned. “It’s true, but, we’ve got our guys, Robin. We know exactly what we’re looking for. We just have to put in some hard yards, more tailing, maybe some kind of set-up at the office? We’ll have to think about it. But I’m convinced. We’re gonna nail them”.

Then he added sheepishly, “will you please make us some tea?”.

She laughed, surprised how joyful she found herself feeling. “You just want to watch me get out of bed and walk over to the kettle!”.

He grinned. “I really do want some tea. But I won’t complain about the view”.

She hit him lightly but did as requested.

When they settled down later with some tea and toast, writing up some notes on their recollections from last night and trying to come up with a plan of attack, she thought how nice it was to work like this, dressed in one of his big shirts and with her hair and makeup undone. _I should really have tried this ages ago_ , she thought. She knew that it might be complicated in future, trying to work together if they kept on with whatever this was. Especially if Cormoran ever decided to get overbearingly protective again for some reason, but for now at least, it was very pleasant.

She suddenly realised that the sound of Cormoran’s pen scritching over paper had gone quiet. Looking up at him, she found him studying her.

“You know”, he said casually, “we’re going to be working pretty hard on this for the next while. And we’ve done a lot of hours already. We might need a bit of a holiday, afterwards”.

“Oh, definitely”.

“Well”, he said with studied nonchalance, “I thought maybe, if you wanted, seeing how things go, you know, we could…go somewhere together?”.

She watched, fascinated, as a muscle in his neck twitched, the only sign belying his cool exterior.

Robin felt a warmth spread throughout her chest, joining with the cup of tea in her stomach.

“I’d really like that”, she said.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that the making-out-to-prevent-suspicion trope is severely over done, but it's just so much fun to think and write about!


End file.
